Identifying and Advocating Best Practices in the Criminal Justice System. A Texas-Centric Examination of Current Conditions, Reform Initiatives, and Emerging Issues with a Special Emphasis on Capital Punishment.

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Developments in North Carolina

It's
time to juice up the needle. No more slacking off on sending the N.C.
death-row inmates to the death chamber for their lethal injection.

That's
the thinking behind a new bill introduced Wednesday by New Hanover
Republican senator Thom Goolsby. Goolsby's Senate Bill 306 would repeal
the 2009 N.C. Racial Justice Act, a law state Republicans already gutted
last year. The changes drastically reduced the ability of judges to use
general statistics and data to decide whether a death row inmate was
given the death penalty because of his or her race. Goolsby gave his
support for that revamped bill lawmakers approved, saying then that he
didn't "trust statisticians or people who come in after the fact to find
some way to get coldblooded killers off of death row."

But that wasn't good enough and now he's calling for the law's total revocation. His bill also calls for doctors,
nurses and pharmacists to participate in executions without fear of
punishment from state licensing boards, something the courts have
already declared permissible. And it also requires a somewhat ghoulish
death watch by lawmakers with mandated updates to the General Assembly
on the status of post-conviction death penalty cases, and on the
training of executioners.

And:

Instead
of trying to restart the state killing industry, North Carolina should
join those states abandoning it. It's too often unfairly administered
even when race is not a factor.

Legislation introduced Wednesday aims at streamlining the execution process in North Carolina.

The measure by Sen. Thom Goolsby,
R-New Hanover, seeks to make several changes to laws governing the
administration and appeal of capital punishment. It also includes doing
away with the state's Racial Justice Act.

The
2009 law allows those sent to death row to seek having their sentences
commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole if they can
convince a judge racial prejudice played a role in their conviction.

Flanked
by prosecutors from across the state, Goolsby decried that none of the
152 inmates on North Carolina's death row have been executed since 2006
due to various state and federal legal appeals.

Sen. Thom Goolsby, R-New Hanover, has
filed a bill he said will end North Carolina's de facto moratorium on
the death penalty. Among other measures, it would wipe away the last
vestiges of the Racial Justice Act, a measure that allows death row
inmates to challenge their sentences based on statistical evidence.

And:

The measure also:

Codifies court rulings that allow
doctors, nurses and other health professionals to participate in
executions without sanction from the North Carolina Medical Board or
other licensing bodies.

Outlines the time line the attorney
general and Division of Adult Correction has to follow once an inmate
has exhausted his or her appeals.

Provides ongoing training to execution teams.

Requires regular reports on the status of death row cases to the General Assembly.

It's unclear how much more quickly executions would happen if Goolsby's bill passes.

The families of two Fayetteville-area murder victims stood in
support of legislation filed Wednesday to repeal North Carolina's Racial
Justice Act and end the state's unofficial moratorium on executions.

The Racial Justice Act of 2009 and 2012 provides condemned inmates an
opportunity to escape death row if they have evidence that racism was a
factor in their prosecutions and convictions. It was a response to
concerns of institutional racism in the criminal justice system.

Independently from the Racial Justice Act, all executions in the
state were halted in January 2007 by court challenges questioning the
legality and constitutionality of North Carolina's execution practices.

"The beginning of the end of that moratorium starts today," said
state Sen. Thom Goolsby, a Wilmington Republican and criminal defense
lawyer, during a news conference to announce his legislation.

And:

The state is still in litigation over the constitutionality of its
execution procedures, whether they violate the Eighth Amendment's
prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, said David Weiss, a lawyer
with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. Goolsby's bill would have
not have an effect on that case, Weiss said, and until it's resolved,
executions will remain on hold in North Carolina.

He thinks it will take at least a year.

The matter is pending before the N.C. Court of Appeals, and from
there, it's expected to be heard by the N.C. Supreme Court, Weiss said.

SB306, filed by Sen. Thom Goolsby, a Wilmington Republican, would
repeal the RJA in its entirety. Goolsby announced the bill at a news
conference attended by district attorneys from around the state, and
relatives of murder victims.

The bill would apparently not bring an end to the claims that have already been filed under the Racial Justice Act, however.

Goolsby said the bill would "restart the death penalty in North
Carolina to ensure justice for the more than 100 families whose loved
ones were taken brutally from them."

Tye Hunter, director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, in
an interview noted that Republican legislators last session insisted
they weren’t repealing the Racial Justice Act. “Now the mask is off,”
Hunter said.

North Carolina hasn’t had an execution since 2006, and state Sen. Thom Goolsby wants to change that.

Goolsby, a Wilmington Republican, filed a bill today that seeks to
repeal what’s left of the Racial Justice Act and restart executions in
North Carolina.

North Carolina’s death row has 152 people on it,
and the numbers of people sentenced to death has lessened in recent
years. No one was sentenced to death by a North Carolina jury last year,
though three people were in 2011. The longest resident of death row,
Wayne Laws, has been awaiting execution since 1985.

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The StandDown Texas Project

The StandDown Texas Project was organized in 2000 to advocate a moratorium on executions and a state-sponsored review of Texas' application of the death penalty.
To stand down is to go off duty temporarily, especially to review safety procedures.

Steve Hall

Project Director Steve Hall was chief of staff to the Attorney General of Texas from 1983-1991; he was an administrator of the Texas Resource Center from 1993-1995. He has worked for the U.S. Congress and several Texas legislators. Hall is a former journalist.